The expansive Tibetan Plateau stretched on for eternity, our 36-hour train ride felt the same. This is a typical scene, the Plateau is bigger than Texas and Alaska combined. We passed by herds of Yak, mountainous regions and high meadows. The average elevation was 10-11,000 feet with passes up to to 16,640 ft. and is over 596 miles in length. The Chinese government invested more than 4 billion USD in temperate sensitive railway ties over the frozen tundra because they want Lhasa to be a big tourist destination.
The highest fresh-water lake in the world next to a herd of Yaks.
We were fortunate and had interesting roommates. A lady from California who co-owns a cattle ranch in Eureka and an Inn in Sonoma. The young man, a fluent-English speaker, was an exchange student that she placed in Eureka 10 years ago when he was sixteen. Their families are close friends and he is now a successful entrepreneur building apartment complexes in China.
